A love grove is a healthy community, where members are committed to a path of healing and deeply rooted in love and compassion. They are generous with exquisite listening and invested in the well-being of other members. Joy gets multiplied in a love grove.

A love grove takes time to grow. It doesn’t sprout up overnight. A web of roots forms slowly.

Last Friday was a reminder of the rewards of belonging to a love grove–consisting of me and three friends/colleagues. I started the day with thinking about one member who was undergoing a medical procedure, hundreds of miles away. I sent a note of encouragement. That resulted in wishes from another member for a successful outcome. From there, it snowballed, not just with more good vibes for a medical procedure, but with each member spontaneously sharing the joy and magic they were experiencing in their lives that day.

One member shared a photo of turquoise stones that caught her eye at a market in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She talked about the significance of turquoise to her, with a sidenote that each of us would receive one of these charms in the mail.

I was on my patio, tending to my potted plants, listening to the birds chirping, and feeling the jubilance of a sunny day after a rainy week in Iowa. On a whim, I made a video of my surroundings, ending with a view of the farm across the street from my front porch. I offered my Iowa postcard to the love grove members.

Another member remarked how the birds and plants in my video postcard seemed so happy. She commented on the essence of what she saw and how it made her feel.

The friend who underwent the medical procedure reported that all went well, giving gratitude for our support. He sent a photo of himself at a favorite brunch place afterward. There were more rounds of congratulations and “good news!”

The member in Belfast sent photos of the Irish landscape, roses she had arranged in bouquets and the lucky recipients of those bouquets–an elderly aunt and a sister she was visiting. She noted how she had learned to arrange flowers from me when we were at a retreat together in March. This was followed by a photo of her dogs, in the English countryside where she lives.

One member, infused with the joy of visiting family in Nova Scotia, sent an image of her mom and aunt walking on a gravel path that day. She followed up with a video of a fond place from her childhood–her grandparents’ homestead, built in 1860, lovingly referred to as “The Camp.”

With each posting, I could feel more love, gratitude, and joy. There was no grasping for false compliments or feeling obliged to comment on each sharing. Nor was there a whiff of competition of whose life was better.

Instead each of us wanted to expand and amplify our individual joy by sharing it with others. This was possible over the course of a day and across four different time zones, because we felt the invisible and real connections of the love grove. Trees communicate through roots, underground, and imperceptibly. Our love grove communicates over WhatsApp.

This started with a call for support while undergoing a health challenge. It ended with a sweet memory of a childhood days spent at a grandparents’ home. The spontaneous conversation was authentic and open-hearted and left everyone feeling more connected. That’s what can happen in a love grove.